The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming system using a portable phone, a smart phone, or a portable terminal (hereinafter referred to as a “mobile terminal”) which can operate the image forming apparatus.
An image forming apparatus, which is a multifunction peripheral (MFP), such as a printer, a multifunction printer, a multifunction peripheral apparatus, a multifunction machine, or the like can generate image data from a scanned document and document data stored in a server, perform print output, FAX transmission, and email transmission of the image data, and output the image data to the server. Further, the image forming apparatus can be operated by a mobile terminal. Lately, mobile terminals have been developed remarkably and thus mobile terminals having more excellent performance than the image forming apparatus having functions such as display, data processing, communication, and the like, embedded therein have emerged.
As such, thanks to the spread of techniques allowing mobile terminals to operate image forming apparatuses, image forming apparatuses may be easily operated by either of a body panel provided on the image forming apparatus or a mobile terminal. For example, a technique allowing a wireless terminal to perform a service operation which is performed by an operation section of the image forming apparatus to simultaneously rewrite a control program for a plurality of image forming apparatuses by establishing a one-to-many relationship between terminals and the image forming apparatus is disclosed. Further, a technique allowing a portable phone to perform an operation of a printer by using an iMode function of the portable phone and displaying status error information, and the like, of the printer on the portable phone to realize a new equipment operation unit for a panel-less printer or equipment with no display section is disclosed.